Strathaven wheelchair curler Aileen Neilson guided Scotland to a sixth place finish at the world championships in Russia at the weekend, improving on last year’s disappointing campaign.

The Scots finished at an all-time low of eighth at last year’s event and lost out to hosts Russia in the 5th/6th place playoff which took place at Sochi, the venue of next year’s Winter Olympics/Paralympics.

In the round robin event Aileen’s team claimed wins over Korea, Norway, Finland and USA but defeats to Canada, Sweden, China, Russia and Slovakia.

At the end of the round robin Scotland were nowhere near the semi-finals and in the fifth and six playoff with Russia, they came up short as the hosts prevailed in the tiebreaker 7-5.

Canada were the eventual champions as they beat Sweden 4-3 in the final, while China claimed the bronze medal with a 6-5 win over USA.

How ever, the results do not affect Scotland’s qualification for the Winter Paralympics.

The Scotland team will play for Great Britain at next year’s Games and Aileen and her team can look forward to that challenge, knowing things must improve if they are to realise their dream of bringing home a Paralympic medal from Sochi.